Today begins a 5 day morning shift, weekend excluded. Next week is Holy Week which means 5 days off…i.e., Thursday through Monday. However, I voluteered to work the Monday after Easter Sunday, double time. Figure on visiting my friend and his family in Westmanæyar for the holiday. That´ll be about my 7th trip there. Right now we´re experiencing a mini-Christmas as one worker put it: certainly not as bad as that holiday but packages of chocolate going abroad. Icelanders have special fondness for chocolate Easter eggs and send to friends and relatives abroad. There is a drug-sniffing dog which make the rounds of the post building. He´s always happy and energetic but heard for the third time bit his handler.

In the near future I´ll be changing from snow to summer tires. There´s a legal cut-off day for this though quite a few people already made the switch. Not a wise thing to do because yesterday in my area of Grafavogur there was a light coat of frost which really messed things up. The geothermal road system hasn´t made it here yet despite complaints to do so.

The weather today is a Top Ten which means not a cloud in the sky and hardly a breeze. I haven´t checked the thermometer but in the sun it must be around 18-20C. The sun is starting to burn as it does in these northern climes. When it´s as nice as this, there is no better place in the world to be than Iceland due to the clarity of the air.

As for the magnificent weather, after work I parked about 3K from where I live in Grafavogur and walked around a bit. At a time like this I wish I had a Thoreauvian way to describe the atmosphere. Anyway, the clarity of atmosphere allows for things to stand out with remarkable clarity, especially Esja, layered in snow. By "layered" I mean the rib-like layers of Esja's tabletop outline, typical for young rock formations. Thrown in clouds over the top and the calm waters of Reykjavik's outer bay, and you really have something special. Could stay out all day.